Orientation to Change in Organizations

Orientation to Change in Organizations

Organizational Orientation to Change

What is your organizations' orientation to change?

My organization is one that is focused on gradual improvements over time, as the software created for customers is quite complex and would be nearly impossible to produce through seismic-based organizational change. Using the approaches of Kaizen and a project management application called Agile Product Development (Vlaanderen, Jansen, Brinkkemper, Jaspers, 2011) our software teams continually work to align the software features to what a customer is looking for in terms of features, navigation and performance. It is a Kaizen-based approach because the iterative nature of fine-tuning the software to their needs requires a continual refining and re-orienting to their requirements. Over time, we have seen that this approach to creating software is highly effective, and reduces the number of errors, and most importantly, keeps us in step with customer expectations. This is consistent with findings from studies of long-term Kaizen studies of organizational change and effectiveness (Farris, Van Aken, Doolen, Worley, 2009). The use of Agile as a development platform has also completely changed the anxiety and rush to get massive amounts of software written as well. Now our approach is to incrementally create modules and release them over time. This is also consistent with the approach in many kaizen projects of defining continual improvement segmented into smaller, incremental steps over time (Bessant, Caffyn, Gallagher, 2001). These approaches to development have assisted the organization to also respond more effectively to competitors and create greater value for customers over the long-term.

If Dr. Ashby were to do an assessment of your organization, how would he label your organization (explain your answer).

The organization I work for is solidly in the area of a Quantum Peeper as it successfully follows the leads of others. This is partially because the customer base is quite conservative and does not like rapid change to their software applications. As the majority of our customers pay a maintenance fee of between 20% to 22% of their contract amount for yearly updates to their applications, they expect a continual flow of updates relevant to their needs. Going too far away from their original goals for purchasing the applications will alienate them, possibly leading to their cancelling the software and going with another vendor.

The organization is a Quantum Peeper also based on its approach to adopting new technology for development. As many of the customers are in the aerospace and defense industry, their need for security is very high. They like to see lots of safeguards in place as to how the data is captured, analyzed and presented back to the user. As a result, the Quantum Peeper approach is critical for our company to stay focused and in alignment to our customers' expectations over time. It is a reality of the business that change must be slow, focused, highly documented, and easily replicated to please these customers. From that standpoint, the organizational culture is defining the pace of innovation (Valencia, Valle, Jimenez, 2010). The pace of change is relatively slow as the customers demand a thoroughness to their applications and resist rapid, volatile change.

Assess yourself- regardless of your role in your organization, you are essential to any strategic planning process (be it planning, implementation or evaluation). How would YOU personally respond to change?

As my role in the organization centers on the planning process, the goal is to be more Kaizen focused and less seismic. Yet given how rapidly the enterprise software market is changing, it is critically important to be agile, focused on future opportunities and push the organization forward. So while the culture dictates my role support the Quantum Peeper approach, there must be initiative to push the company forward over the long-term. The organizational culture defines a slow and steady focus on growth, yet to keep the momentum going forward, there must be a constant focus on learning and continual growth (Valencia, Valle, Jimenez, 2010). This focus needs to be on continually learning more and staying in front of the technology adoption curve. It takes balance to respect the culture of the company yet also push for adoption of new approaches to ensure it stay relevant in the coming decades.